Hearing for sentencing in Soumya murder case for Nov 7

A DELHI court on Thursday posted the hearing for arguments on the quantum of sentence against five individuals convicted in the 2008 murder case of Malayalee TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan for November 7.

On October 18, the court convicted four accused under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions and one for receiving stolen property.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Ravindra Kumar Pandey of Saket Courts took note of the fact that certain documents, including the pre-sentencing report (PSR) by the probationary officer, as well as the affidavits of the five convicts, had not yet been filed.

In response, the judge ordered the preparation of these reports and affidavits and scheduled further proceedings for November 7.

Four of the accused, Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Ajay Kumar and Baljeet Malik, have been convicted under MCOCA provisions and Ajay Sethi for receiving stolen property.

On September 30, 2008, Vishwanathan was shot dead on the Nelson Mandela Marg while returning home from work in her car. The accused were arrested in connection with the murder and have been in custody since March 2009.

The police had attributed the motive behind her killing to robbery and had invoked the stringent MCOCA against the accused. Malik, Kapoor and Shukla were previously convicted in the 2009 killing of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh.

In Ghosh’s murder, the trial court sentenced Kapoor and Shukla to death and awarded a life term to Malik.

Subsequently, in the following year, the High Court commuted the death sentences of Kapoor and Shukla to life imprisonment while upholding Malik’s life term in the Ghosh murder case.